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The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

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About this listen

 Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat?

Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages.

The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail, and startling for its portrayal of humanity in an age of violence, exuberance and fear.

©2008 Ian Mortimer (P)2009 Isis Publishing Ltd Europe Great Britain Medieval Middle Ages England Thought-Provoking Funny Royalty

Critic reviews

"A jaunty journey through the 14th century, one that wriggles with the stuff of everyday life." ( Guardian)
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This is an excellent book, and the narrator remains engaging and informative throughout.

What is striking is how very similar life in the medaevil time was to life today. People still worked for bosses who kept the lion's share of any profit, took trips to see famous sights where they bought souvenirs, saw doctors who were basically making it up as they went along, and if accused of a crime, found the burden of proof to be upon themselves to prove their innocence.

I especially enjoyed the chapters on travelling around the country and the sights and people you were likely to meet, and the way the book explodes many long-held myths about life in the 14th Century.

Highly recommended.

A stroll through history

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In daydreaming one thinks "how wonderful to nip back in time"....but would it be wonderful"....this excellent book covers every bit of your journey ,all the. Bits you hadn't quite thought through ,like is it safe to travel to the next town ,how do I find it ,what is the state if the road,how do I wash ,where do I go to the loo....and of course "does my bum look big in this".....well perhaps not in those words but what do I wear.....questions I never knew I would need to know and all well narrated......I enjoyed it so much I bought the other book and enjoyed it just as much

Transported

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If you were terrible at history in school, like me, but would love to learn a bit more about how everything worked, who was in charge and what it might have been like to live in the past, then this is an amazing book. I usually get audiobooks for the car, but on this one I couldn't hit pause! The narrator had a good pace and the topics from chapter to chapter were really interesting. Will definitely be recommending to friends!

History, learned painlessly

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So much history and historical fiction is written about monarchs and the aristocracy so it is refreshing to also learn about how most of the populace lived. From the very beginning this book bristles with the sounds, smells and vicissitudes of English medieval life experienced by the majority. We learn what people did to earn a pittance eked out to buy food and pay rent. Throughout the book I could imagine walking down the ordure laden and odiferous streets, and feel itchy at the thought of the bedbugs in nights spent in hostelries on arduous journeys taking many days jolting on rough roads. Often I felt grateful to be living now!

The 14th century is an interesting one to chose when there was a renewed appreciation of Englishness emerging from the French dominance of Norman Conquest. It was a century when the Black Death first hit the country leading to a shortage of labour with villages abandoned and fields and livestock left untended, plus protracted war and the start of a long period of cooling of the climate all of which adversely affected daily life for the majority.

The book has a wealth of interesting material about what people wore, ate, social norms, the law and the harsh punishments for crimes all woven together in a lively conversational style of writing that suits audio perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and have downloaded the author's other Time Travellers' Guides.

The narrator is very good and adds to the enjoyment.

Brings the 14th century to vibrant life

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If only the authorities made this style of presenting history mandatory in our schools.....Ian Mortimer really brings out the way in which England worked in the 14th Century. Interestingly, and unusually, this book covers not only the gentry, but the lives of the everyday man, woman and child, whose stories are often untold.

I am not a monster of history, so can commend this book to anyone who has a modicum of interest in learning a bit about how we got to where we are.

A real journey into the past

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